Friday, December 6, 2024
HomeCyber Security NewsBeware of New Malware that Distributed through Compromised YouTube Accounts

Beware of New Malware that Distributed through Compromised YouTube Accounts

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Cyble Research Labs (CRL) specifies that the stealers such as PennyWise and RedLine are increasing and spreading through YouTube campaigns. In their analysis, they have identified more than 5,000 PennyWise Stealer executable samples in the last 3 months alone.

The ‘PennyWise stealer’ is an evasive info stealer leveraging YouTube to infect users. It is built using an unknown crypter which makes the debugging process tedious. It uses multithreading to steal user data and creates over 10 threads, enabling faster execution and stealing.

The ‘RedLine stealer’ is an information stealing malware family that is widely advertised for sale within underground forums.

- Advertisement - SIEM as a Service

How the Users are Tricked?

Threat actors upload video tutorials on how to download and install particular software and guide users to get paid subscriptions for free, which tricks the users into installing the malicious software. The link to this software (which is actually malware) will be available in the YouTube video description.

The link will redirect to free cloud storage and file hosting services like Mega, Mediafire, OneDrive, Discord, and Github, where threat actors have hosted malicious Windows executable files using password-protected archive files. Experts say these YouTube campaigns mainly spread stealer and miner categories of malware.

In this case, threat actors target users who are interested in getting paid subscriptions for free such as games, programs, or anti-virus software. Generally, people search keywords like “software cracks,” “keygens,” etc. That time, the users are redirected to these YouTube videos which have malicious links.

https://i0.wp.com/blog.cyble.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Figure-1-YouTube-Search-Results.png?resize=752%2C170&ssl=1
YouTube Search Results Using Keywords

“We observed sudden changes in the video upload frequency and the kind of videos uploaded on these YouTube channels. This led us to suspect that the YouTube channels used for these campaigns are either compromised accounts or created specifically for the purpose of spreading stealer malware”, Cyble Research Labs.

Video Description with Download Link

Further, the researchers noticed YouTube channel regularly uploads videos related to singing and fun activities and has unexpectedly started posting videos related to software cracks/hacks. Also, these channels have thousands of subscribers.

Compromised YouTube Account

Therefore, the threat actors are utilizing compromised Google accounts to deliver malware payloads through YouTube videos. So these compromised Google accounts can also be leveraged for other malicious purposes, such as hosting malicious data on Google Drive or can send phishing spam emails from the victim’s Gmail accounts.

Recommendations

  • Avoid downloading pirated software from unverified sites.
  • Use strong passwords and enforce multi-factor authentication wherever possible. 
  • Keep updating your passwords after certain intervals.
  • Use a reputed anti-virus and internet security software package on your connected devices, including PC, laptop, and mobile. 
  • Refrain from opening untrusted links and email attachments without first verifying their authenticity.  
  • Block URLs that could be used to spread the malware, e.g., Torrent/Warez. 
  • Monitor the beacon on the network level to block data exfiltration by malware or TAs. 
  • Enable Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions on employees’ systems.

You can follow us on LinkedinTwitterFacebook for daily Cybersecurity updates

Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

Top Five Industries Most Frequently Targeted by Phishing Attacks

Researchers analyzed phishing attacks from Q3 2023 to Q3 2024 and identified the top...

Russian BlueAlpha APT Exploits Cloudflare Tunnels to Distribute Custom Malware

BlueAlpha, a Russian state-sponsored group, is actively targeting Ukrainian individuals and organizations by using...

Russian Hackers Hijacked Pakistani Actor Servers For C2 Communication

Secret Blizzard, a Russian threat actor, has infiltrated 33 command-and-control (C2) servers belonging to...

Sophisticated Celestial Stealer Targets Browsers to Steal Login Credentials

Researchers discovered Celestial Stealer, a JavaScript-based MaaS infostealer targeting Windows systems that, evading detection...

API Security Webinar

72 Hours to Audit-Ready API Security

APIs present a unique challenge in this landscape, as risk assessment and mitigation are often hindered by incomplete API inventories and insufficient documentation.

Join Vivek Gopalan, VP of Products at Indusface, in this insightful webinar as he unveils a practical framework for discovering, assessing, and addressing open API vulnerabilities within just 72 hours.

Discussion points

API Discovery: Techniques to identify and map your public APIs comprehensively.
Vulnerability Scanning: Best practices for API vulnerability analysis and penetration testing.
Clean Reporting: Steps to generate a clean, audit-ready vulnerability report within 72 hours.

More like this

Top Five Industries Most Frequently Targeted by Phishing Attacks

Researchers analyzed phishing attacks from Q3 2023 to Q3 2024 and identified the top...

Russian BlueAlpha APT Exploits Cloudflare Tunnels to Distribute Custom Malware

BlueAlpha, a Russian state-sponsored group, is actively targeting Ukrainian individuals and organizations by using...

Russian Hackers Hijacked Pakistani Actor Servers For C2 Communication

Secret Blizzard, a Russian threat actor, has infiltrated 33 command-and-control (C2) servers belonging to...